Services: 7 p.m. Friday at La Trinidad United Methodist, 300 San Fernando St.

Raising four daughters of his own didn't stop Richard Teniente from making a difference in the lives of the kids in his West Side neighborhood. He invited them into his pharmacies to play video games, hired them to deliver prescription orders and welcomed them into his home on weekends.

“We would have a barbecue every Sunday and invite the Lanier football team,” said daughter Karen Teniente. “They were like our brothers.” She remembered her father would send the players upstairs to study and finish their homework.

One of his professors told him he “should go back where he came from because he would never make it,” said daughter Melanie Teniente — a comment prompted by his Mexican American heritage.

Not discouraged, Teniente went on to own and work in three pharmacies in San Antonio and serve on the City Council from 1974-77. He was also the first Mexican American to be elected president of the San Antonio Independent School District board of trustees and was a member of the State Board of Education for two years. He topped off his public service career as justice of the peace from 1985 to 2003, when he retired.

Throughout his career Teniente was always available to his community. “He was a very positive influence and role model for West Side and Lanier High School,” Karen Teniente said. “Many people would say if it weren't for him they wouldn't have finished their degree.”

She remembers a student who got cold feet while away at college. “He wanted to come home,” she said. “My dad said no way and talked him into staying in school.”

His sister, Stella Sanders, said people came to him for money all the time. “He never said no to anybody,” she said. “If he didn't have it, he'd find ways of getting other people to help.”

And people didn't forget him. “We ran into a man at an election site, and he said he was so grateful to my father because his daughter was sick and he couldn't afford the medicine,” Melanie Teniente said.